This application is based on Patent Application No. 2000-247796 filed Aug. 17, 2000 in Japan, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a search method in a used car search support system providing used car information about salable used cars online.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a computer system is well known that stores inventory information about used cars, allows an operator to input search conditions such as a desired price of a purchaser, and displays used car information meeting the search conditions. In such a computer system, the search for used cars is carried out by inputting a manufacturer, model, price, model year, distance traveled, and the like as the search conditions.
Although the price is an important factor for a purchaser to search for the used cars, the price (or the ratio to the price of the new model) differs greatly depending on the model. As for particular models, the prices vary sharply depending on their popularity. Generally, since a new model after the full model change brings about an image of the cars with that model, the popularity of an old model is likely to be lost when the new model is unpopular.
It is usually difficult for persons not engaging in the used car business to search for the used cars efficiently because they do not know their price levels. In addition, as for exclusive cars, since they have wide price ranges, an input price range is not necessarily an absolute condition. In such a case, valuable items for a purchaser can be missed because they are out of the price range.
Although a computer system is proposed that sets a price range for each article so that a purchaser can select the price ranges for the individual articles (Japanese patent application laid-open No. 10-149392 (1998), see FIG. 4), setting such price ranges in advance is not so effective because of the large variations in the prices of used cars.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a search method in a used car search support system capable of searching for used car information efficiently.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a search method in a used car search support system that includes a database storing used car information, receives search conditions from an external device, and provides the external device with used car information satisfying the search conditions, the search method in which the used car search support system executes steps of: searching for price information in the used car information that satisfies search conditions other than prices of the search conditions; and providing the external device with price range information based on the search results.
Here, the price range information may be about a maximum price and a minimum price.
The search method in the used car search support system may further comprise the steps of: dividing the used car information that satisfies the search conditions other than the price of the search conditions into prescribed price ranges; counting the number of data in each price range of the used car information; providing the external device with the number of data counted and a corresponding price range as the price range information; receiving information about the price range from the external device; and supplying the external device with the used car information corresponding to the price range indicated by the received information about the price range.
When the number of data of the used car information satisfying the search conditions is greater than a predetermined number, the division in accordance with the predetermined price ranges may be skipped, and all the data of the used car information that satisfy the search conditions may be output.
According to the present invention, even if no external instruction is given to retrieve price related information, when the search conditions other than the price are given, the used car search support system retrieves information satisfying the search conditions from its used car information, such as a price range from a lowest to highest price, or a plurality of price ranges, and supplies the information to the external device. Thus, the user of the external device does not have to examine the used car information obtained as a result of the search, in order to change the search conditions such as the price range for the re-retrieval. Therefore, the user can carry out the retrieval of the used car information efficiently.
According to the present invention, when a sufficient amount of the used car information matching the search conditions is obtained, the re-retrieval is unnecessary. Thus, since the search results are supplied to the external device immediately, the user of the external device is released from useless search operation.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.